Hermes Engraver –
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THE INCREDIBLE NEW HERMES STORY – PART 1

This is the story of an incredible company, its founder, its sales
force, its engraving machines and much more. The New Hermes story actually
dominates the recent history and development of the worldwide machine
engraving industry as we know it today.

As the world's largest manufacturer of pantograph engraving machines,
New Hermes' name is synonymous with the word engraving. There is hardly
an engraver, trophy dealer or jeweler anywhere that has not had at least
one New Hermes machine on their premises.

However, this was not always the case. There was a time when the only
way potential customers across the country ever heard of a New
Hermes engraver was through a handful of sales representatives
who passed their way once or twice a year. It was largely through the
persistent efforts of that dedicated crew of pioneer peddlers that the
name New Hermes has now become a household word among engravers everywhere.

The very early history of New Hermes—as described by its founder,
Norbert Schimmel (Fig. 1)—began in the late 30's. "My wife and
I came to the United States from Germany in February 1938 with very
little money in our pockets. Despite the fact that I studied English
in school, my vocabulary was rather limited. In Germany I was in the
shoe machine business and had a broad mechanical background, but I knew
nothing at all about engraving.

Fig
2 - Werner Dannheisser

Fig
3 - George Berlant

"Shortly after my arrival in the United States, I met Gene Kapp, who
was also from Germany," said Norbert. "Gene approached me with the idea
of manufacturing and selling a portable engraving machine. Mr. Kapp
had a small engraving machine that he had brought with him from Germany.
This machine had been manufactured in Europe for engraving fountain
pens. Mr. Kapp's idea was for us to manufacture the same machine and
sell it here."

The idea of starting a business of their own was appealing to Norbert,
but before making any commitments, he took some time to study the engraving
machine market as it existed in the United States. He was pleased to
discover that although there were portable engraving machines all over
Europe, none were available in this country. Only heavy duty floor-model
engraving machinery was available in the U.S. at that time, e.g. Deckel,
Gorton and Taylor-Hobson pantographs.

Satisfied that there would be no problem with existing competition,
Norbert carefully examined the machine that Gene Kapp wanted to reproduce.
"I found that the European version had too many problems associated
with it," said Norbert. "For one thing, it had a metal belt between
the motor and the spindle, which frequently broke and required constant
maintenance."

But in spite of the machine's obvious shortcomings, Mr. Schimmel agreed
to go into partnership with Gene. Together they formed the New Hermes
Corporation in 1938, for the purpose of constructing and selling portable
Hermes engraver machines that even the unskilled could operate. However,
this machine was to be an improvement over the original European version.

The name "Hermes" (the ancient Greek God of industry and commerce)
was first chosen for the new company but as it turned out, there already
was a Swiss corporation by the same name, which manufactured typewriters.
So instead it was decided to call the company "New Hermes."

New Hermes had been in existence only one year when Kapp decided to
leave the company. He sold his share of the business to Norbert. A short
time later, Norbert, who was slightly short of capital at the time,
met Werner Dannheisser, also from Germany. Werner recognized the potential
for engraving and entered the company as an equal partner.

Fig
4 - Mary Brown

Fig
5 - Paul Kahn

"That same year," said Norbert, "we got together with a nearby subcontractor
by the name of Helmuth Waldorf who agreed to help us develop and produce
our first engraving machine. We finally ended up reconstructing the
entire machine and solving the belt problem in the process." As his
partner, Werner Dannheisser commented, "This was a new product idea
and we had to spend a lot of time and a lot of money just in the development
of the machine. In the beginning both of us served as chief cook and
bottle washer. We did everything from the paper work and publicity to
the shipping, once the machine was in production."

The result was an early version of the Model G, a very compact, motorized,
tracer-guided engraving machine with a 5:1 fixed pantograph ratio. The
machine was portable, simple in construction and easy to operate. It
also had a direct-drive connection between the motor and spindle holder
and a firm base for storage and support. Actually the Model G was similar
in size and appearance to the 1980s Model GM. Three months after the
machine was developed, Schimmel and Dannheisser opened a small office
on 42nd Street in New York City. From there they began promoting their
new machine, with Norbert functioning as salesman and demonstrator and
Werner handling the financial aspects of the business.

Their original intention was to sell engraving machines. However, this
did not turn out to be the case. Mr. Schimmel went to F.W. Woolworth
Co., an international chain of dimestores, hoping to interest them in
buying machines for personalizing fountain pens. The ball-point pen
had not yet been invented and most of the fountain pens at that time
were made of plastic. But instead of making a sale, Mr. Schimmel received
a proposal from Woolworth's to lease their machine—250 machines
to be exact—under a one year contract. As part of the contract,
he agreed to go around to Woolworth's various locations and teach their
employees how to engrave and maintain the machines.

Woolworth turned out to be New Hermes' first big account and in a manner
of speaking gave New Hermes its start. It also marked the beginning
of their rental program, which lasted well into the mid 40s. Following
Woolworth's lead, department stores and specialty shops around the country
also leased engraving machines from New Hermes. This gave New Hermes
the exposure they needed.

Fig
6

Fig
7 - Joe Flamm

Soon they were working directly with manufacturers, helping them to
organize special engraving promotions which were held in department
stores throughout the country. For example, as a Christmas promotion,
Coro, a large costume jewelry manufacturer, created a special line of
jewelry items specifically designed for engraving on the New Hermes
machines. Some of the other manufacturers New Hermes worked in cooperation
with were: Elgin (watches and ladies compacts), Eversharp (pens) and
National Silver (flatware).

In conjunction with these early promotional efforts, New Hermes also
made quite a few design changes and adaptations to their engraver machines
to accommodate the manufacturers' products. Special jigs were designed
for centering jewelry. They also designed a workholder for flatware.
In addition, New Hermes developed the EF machine which had a special
fixture for pens. They developed self-centering workholders and later
developed a machine with two separate pantographs (both were fixed ratio
pantographs—one engraved at ratio 2-1/2:1 and the other at 5:1).

In 1940 with their leasing program well underway, New Hermes moved
from their tiny office on 42nd Street to 5th Avenue and 23rd Street,
where they rented office space in the "Flat Iron Building" (a famous
landmark in New York).

About a year later, just as the company was beginning to grow, things
changed rather rapidly following the U.S. entry into World War II. Mr.
Dannheisser was drafted and went into the Army as a private in the infantry
division. The production of nonessential items and equipment came to
a halt as the country turned its efforts toward products essential to
the war effort. And as jewelry merchandise became scarce, engraving
promotions came to a sudden halt bringing an end to many of the company's
lease plans. The department stores immediately returned all their engraving
machines. Only Woolworth continued to lease machines from New Hermes.

Fortunately New Hermes was flexible enough to change with the times
and the war situation presented new opportunities for them to pursue.
The first opportunity that came their way was an enormous engraving
job for the New York school system.

In 1942, out of fear that the city might be the target of a bomb attack,
the New York City Board of Education decided to have metal dog-tags
made for every school child in the city. But due to the shortage of
metal, the Pentagon insisted on plastic tags. As a result, the Bakelite
Corporation of America received a contract to make 3 ½ million
phenolic identification tags.

"In turn, their vice president, Mr. Zimmerman, who had apparently seen
one of our machines in operation at Macy's Department Store, went there
and obtained our name," explained Norbert. "He asked if we had the facilities
to do the engraving. We didn't at that moment, but I agreed to form
a subsidiary company, Hermes Engravers. Immediately we went out and
rented 4,000 square feet of space at Broadway and 12th Street, strung
some electrical wires and lined up a hundred engraving machines on used
tables. This was enough to get the order. People were hired and trained
to do the engraving. George Berlant was hired as shop foreman (Fig.
3). He had an outgoing, gregarious personality and proved to be very
competent in this position. In fact, George stayed with the company
from 1942 to 1981 and eventually became vice president of engineering.

As George Berlant recalls, "The one thing New Hermes had at that time
that no one else had were engraving machines available to do this large
of an engraving job. They had all the lease machines that had been returned
plus some new machines. Anything that could operate was used to engrave
those 1" diameter tags (Fig. 4) which were all engraved in script to
reduce engraving time."

This first big engraving job continued throughout the war years as
new tags were made for children starting school and lost tags were replaced.
Hermes Engravers also went on to do other types of engraving, but for
the next several years most of these were under government contracts.
For example, they engraved Purple Hearts for the Quartermaster Corps
in Philadelphia on the New Hermes machines. In addition, other large
engraving jobs came their way which required extreme accuracy. "For
this, New Hermes purchased about 15 Gorton machines," explained George
Berlant. "These larger machines were used for engraving 36" x 36" acrylic
plotting boards for radar. We also had to set up special fixtures for
indexing and rotating these boards on the machines."

By 1943, Werner Dannheisser had completed his tour of duty and returned
to New Hermes Machine Corporation, where he immediately assumed the
position of vice president in charge of credit. Dannheisser commented,
"I was never involved to any extent with the engraving. Hermes Engravers
was started by Mr. Schimmel while I was in the service."

Although Hermes Engravers was doing quite well, their engraving machine
business was almost at a standstill. New Hermes could only manufacture
their pantograph engraving machines with a priority for the Armed Forces
and approval from the Pentagon. This was the only marketing direction
New Hermes could take at the time, but it proved to be enough to keep
them going. Eventually every U.S. battleship and destroyer was equipped
with a New Hermes machine on board to engrave new instruction panels
as needed and for shipboard signage.

In 1946, after the war was over, Henry Susskind joined New Hermes.
"In those early days," explained Henry, "I worked on inside sales. The
company was no longer leasing machines." Henry was also taking care
of correspondence and customer contact, creating much good will with
the customers. In later years, he became vice president of sales.

Now that the war was over, the company had to start all over again
to seek new markets for their engraving machines. "The first place we
turned was to the jewelry
market," said Norbert. "I remember a telephone call we received from
a jeweler stating, ‘my hand engraver died—please send me
a machine'." Hand engravers were becoming harder to find and New Hermes
had already sold several engraving machines to jewelers who had leased
machines before the war. The few jewelers who were familiar with the
New Hermes machine now began to look at it as a present possibility
rather than a thing of the future. However, most jewelers around the
country had never even heard of New Hermes and had no experience with
any type of engraving machine. At that time hand engraving was still
the most widely accepted means of personalization.

As a result, New Hermes decided to put together their first sales force
to go on the road promoting their name and selling their engraving machines.
Their first salesman, hired in October, 1945, was Paul Kahn (Fig. 5)
who, although retired and living in Florida, will still try and sell
you a New Hermes engraving machine. Since retiring from the sales force,
Paul has been retained as a sales consultant and instructor.

When Paul became New Hermes' first salesman, he had no territorial
limitations or specific responsibilities. "I went wherever I was needed,"
Paul explains, "and even worked for a while as a purchasing agent. Later
on, as New Hermes hired more sales representatives, I trained them in
their own territory. This took me by train to Denver, Chicago, Kansas
City, Dallas and other cities.

"The machine we were selling at that time was an updated version of
the Model G," he said. "It was a portable, inexpensive, well-built motorized
machine with rotating cutters and came equipped with either a 5:1 ratio
or a 2-½: 1 ratio arm. The Model G (Fig. 6) was intended for
the retail field and had a number of special workholders available."

The determination and dedication of New Hermes early sales force is
particularly impressive. New Hermes' original sales force consisted
of Paul Kahn, Joe Flamm, Jean Jaffe and Maury Kaufman. A short time
later, Ivan Landstrom, Jack and Bob Domito joined the sales force. And
there were others like Bill Kamin, Max Wolfson, Bill Rosenfield, George
Collins, Harold Schoenberg, H.G. Davis, Anna Ritchey and Joe Gideon,
Bill Haws, R.H. Laird Jr. and R.H. Laird III and Leon Ruben who also
deserve special recognition either because they date back to the early
years of the company or were with the company for 20 years or more.
"In Allen Rosenfield, we have a 3rd generation employee," said Norbert.
"Jack Domiteaux, Richard Altonaga, Paul Groth, Jr. and Bill Walkling
III are all 2nd generation employees." Through the years, New Hermes'
colorful crew of sales representatives have included: a retired businessman,
former policeman, jewelry manufacturer and several retail jewelers,
pilot, politician, tennis bum, football player, Rabbi, Deacon, concentration
camp survivor, teacher, engineer, fireman and even a gambler.

One thing these salesmen all had in common was that they were all go-getters.
Instead of sitting around waiting for customers to come to them, they
went out and sold the entire country on New Hermes engraving machines.
And this was back at a time when engraving machines were almost unheard
of and travel was not as easy as it is today. As one of their top salesmen,
Joe Flamm (Fig. 7), who retired in 1970 remarked, "Those were hard traveling
days at the beginning. I couldn't just hop a plane to get up to Seattle
from Los Angeles. Instead it would take me a week to drive up, visiting
customers enroute and selling three or four machines along the way.
Then I would take a different route back and repeat the same process
all over again. At one time, I worked out of the Los Angeles office
covering the West Coast including California, Arizona, New Mexico and
for a while, Washington and Oregon."

These early salesmen criss-crossed the entire country, traveling many
a back road, in their Cadillacs, Packards, De Sotos, Studebakers, Fords,
Lincolns, Buicks, Jaguars and even a private plane. And sales were not
always made after one call. It often took two or more calls to make
a new sale. It took hard work and a long time to demonstrate and then
convince the retailer that having a machine on their premises would
actually create more of a demand for engraving. However, once a machine
was placed in one store it was easier to make a sale to the other stores
in town. Leads and recommendations were readily available from those
who already had a machine.

"In the 40's and early 50's the name New Hermes was still relatively
unknown and engraving machines were looked upon with great suspicion,"
explained Maury Kaufman, "and it was up to us to change all this." Maury
(Fig. 8), who started with New Hermes as a salesman in 1946, became
their National Accounts Manager. "At that time a salesman had to carry
a machine with him for demonstration purposes. He usually had eight
or nine states to cover. It was not unusual for a salesman to travel
500 miles a day. Like many of the other salesmen, I did this for years,
often working a 70-hour week."

As Paul Kahn explained, "During the day I would make ‘cold' calls
and in the evening I consulted the Yellow Pages to prepare the next
day's itinerary."

The New Hermes sales representatives virtually lived and breathed engraving
machines in those early days. No doubt, it was their strong belief in
what they were selling and their dogged persistence that later proved
to be important factors to the company's widespread recognition and
success. And there were salesmen, like Leon Ruben, who helped the other
representatives perceive certain merchandising aspects of the jewelry
business. He once had his own successful jewelry store (East Liverpool,
OH) and did his engraving on a New Hermes. He was so sold on the machine's
merits, that after retiring, he decided to sell them. As a well-known
personage in the jewelry industry, he was quite successful in selling
other jewelers on the many advantages of machine engraving.

At the same time, there were some major engineering breakthroughs in
the machines' design that suddenly opened the doors to greater sales.
Probably the greatest breakthrough came in the jewelry field in 1947,
with the "accidental" discovery of a better way to engrave jewelry using
a non-rotating cutter. Up to that time, all engraving had been done
with a motor and rotating cutters.

As company legend has it, one day someone was demonstrating a machine
to a jeweler from Philadelphia and forgot to turn on the motor. Upon
seeing the "scratch cut," the jeweler who had earlier objected to the
cutter marks produced by the rotating cutter said, "That's the look
I want!" Shortly thereafter the non-rotating graver (a steel forerunner
of the diamond graver) was born.

This new engraving tool soon revolutionized the jewelry engraving industry.
The cut was clean and brilliant—far superior to previous rotary
engraving results which frequently left tool marks. "Diamond Drag,"
as this new method was later called, removed most of the objections
some jewelers had to machine engraving and opened the doors of the finest
jewelers to New Hermes.

The year 1947 brought another major step in the company's history.
Norbert founded Hermes Plastics, Inc. The war years, in particular making
phenolic I.D. tags for all of New York's school children, proved that
there was a market for plastics engraving. At that time, the only type
of laminated plastic available for engraving was rigid laminated phenolic.
Still used today, phenolic is brittle and rather difficult to fabricate
and it was virtually unavailable in those days cut to size and beveled.
Thus Norbert perceived, quite correctly, that in order to open up this
market, the company had to supply the material as well as the machines,
thus kicking off the materials division that would ultimately surpass
the parent company in sales.

"In the early days, plastic sales were relatively small," explained
Ben Werfel (Fig. 9), a mechanical engraving salesman who later became
vice president in charge of New Hermes' Plastics and Engraving companies.
He explains, "But there were a small number of machine engravers out
in the field that needed plastic materials cut-to-size and the company
was actually drawn into plastics fabricating by customer demand. And
as machine sales grew the demand for plastics and plastics engraving
just grew along with them.

By 1948 New Hermes had abandoned their earlier subcontractor (Waldorf)
and turned to Gerard Gruettner for assistance in the design and construction
of their machines. Working closely with New Hermes, Gruettner developed
a whole series of design changes for New Hermes beginning with an adjustable
pantograph. This turned out to be their Model GM with ratios ranging
from 2-½:l to 6:1. Now the engraver could reproduce 15 different
sizes of engraving from the same master template.

In the 1950's, Gruettner's design ideas for improving the New Hermes
ring engraving machine led to the first really practical inside ring
engraving machine in the industry. For the trophy industry he was instrumental
in the development of a larger engraving machine with the capacity to
handle Revere bowls and large trays.

By the mid 50s, with the advent of the plastics division and the introduction
of larger more versatile machines, New Hermes was now able to pursue
many new markets, including trophies, signage and the industrial field.

"As fast as New Hermes came out with bigger and better machines, we
sold them," said Joe Flamm. "First there was the Model G (which was
also called ‘Industrial A'), then came the GM and the GT and the
ring engraving machine along with a host of new accessories and type
styles."
By the early 50s New Hermes had entered both the trophy
and the industrial field. With the introduction of the Model H in the
late 50s and the Model VB in the early 60s, New Hermes really became
a full-line industrial supplier.

At that time, Maury Kaufman felt that there were many industrial applications
for engraving that were going unnoticed. And so he was put in charge
of developing the industrial field in the East and New England states.
Maury began by selling the idea of plastic engraved signage to sign
people. "These people were accustomed to making cardboard signs and
hand painted lettering," said Maury. "What we were then selling was
a whole new concept in signmaking. We also went to airplane manufacturers,
electronics people, hospitals and even visited the military, selling
various types of badges and signs.

"I went to factories where they knew nothing of engraving. To them,
there was no such thing as industrial engraving. If they needed engraving
work done they sent it out to a hand engraver or for hot stamping."
What New Hermes really had to sell first was the idea that the factories
could do the engraving themselves. Many factories mistakenly thought
that an engraving setup would probably cost them $10,000 and require
special engineers to run it. They didn't realize that it was a simple,
tracer-guided process that almost anyone could do, nor did they realize
that their actual setup costs would be so low, e.g. only a few hundred
to a thousand dollars.

Bill Kamin (Fig. 10), who began his career as a salesman for New Hermes
in the early 50's, laid the groundwork for the establishment of Hermes
Plastics Midwest. He was originally assigned as a sales representative
for several North Central states and began stocking supplies—particularly
plastics—in his Chicago office. Later he organized and managed
the Hermes Chicago plastics fabricating plant and continued to represent
New Hermes in Cook County (Chicago), IL, until his retirement in 1971.

During the 50's, while the salesmen were out in search of new markets
for their plastics line as well as their engraving machines, a major
change was taking place in New York. A Frenchman, by the name of Marcel
Vitoux, had approached Norbert with a very attractive offer to manufacture
parts for the New Hermes engraving machines at his plant in France.
He also wanted to represent New Hermes in Europe. Vitoux owned a huge
textile plant with a machine manufacturing plant on the side which he
was anxious to put into full operation.

As a result of this meeting in 1954, Schimmel and Vitoux made an agreement
to form a company together to manufacture the pantograph part of the
New Hermes' machines at Vitoux's plant in France. New Hermes would then
buy the pantograph
and continue to have the rest of the machine (the motor, workholder
and die cast base) manufactured in the U.S. The actual assembly was
then handled by New Hermes. The arrangements were made and the European
company came to be known as Gravograph, an international company with
agents around the world.

Fig
8 - Maury Kaufman

Fig
9 - Ben Werfel

New Hermes had already earned quite a name for itself in the jewelry
field and was established to the point that few jewelers would touch
another machine. The New Hermes machine was fast becoming the standard
of the engraving industry. Most jewelers either sold trophies or had
close connections with the trophy industry and it was on their recommendations
that New Hermes' entry into the trophy field was such an easy one. The
trophy industry itself was greatly aided at that time by the increasing
post-war popularity of bowling and other sports and recreational activities.
In 1963, Hermes Plastics introduced Gravoply, the first flexible laminated
engraving stock that would soon revolutionize the plastics industry.
By working in close cooperation with Hugh Rowland, Schimmel created
a modified acrylic material which was a tremendous improvement over
phenolic and could even be bent with the application of heat. Best of
all, it was easy to fabricate. The engraver could shear and score it
himself and it required no pre-drilling.

When Hermes Plastics began selling Gravoply in sheets by the square
inch rather than by the pound (the way phenolic had been sold), engravers
found this to be much more convenient. "As a further convenience," remarked
Norbert, "we were able to promise 24 hour shipment when the normal delivery
time for cut pieces of phenolic was six weeks." The impact New Hermes'
Gravoply had on both the plastics and the engraving industry at that
time was phenomenal! New Hermes was now keenly aware of the importance
of new developments in engraving materials and went on to develop a
full line of plastics. By 1977 the plastics division had developed two
new materials: one was 2-Plex, which was a duo-color acrylic designed
for interior or exterior usage. The other was Gravoply II, Hermes' first
micro-surface engraving stock.

In addition to their plastics line, New Hermes also provided an extensive
line of engraving supplies such as nameplate holders, legend plates,
luggage tags, badge blanks, etc.

As New Hermes became more familiar with the trophy and sports industry,
they directed their attention to meeting these specialized needs. In
1963, New Hermes designed a machine for engraving skis. Two years later,
in 1965, they developed the first machine for bowling ball engraving.
George Berlant played a key role in the design and development of these
two machines.

Throughout the 50's and early 60's, there were many machine revisions.
By the late 1950's the GTX-series machines had arrived and met with
instant success. This allowed jewelers, trophy dealers and industrial
manufacturers to hold larger pieces for engraving, e.g. baby cups, mugs,
etc. The GTX was followed by the development of the IL, ITF and IRX-series
machines. The whole concept of flatbed machines for signage came about
at that time, as evidenced by these models.

Fewer major changes and developments occurred in the ensuing years—mostly
machine refinements. One exception is the introduction of their glass
engraving machine in 1974. By the late 70's New Hermes was offering
almost two dozen different machines. The machine line continued to grow
and additional equipment was added including a strip heater (1977),
Safety Saw (1979) and the Thermograph hot stamping machine (1981).

The early years in the history of New Hermes were often difficult.
Started on a shoestring by German immigrants, the company saw much of
its customer base evaporate almost overnight following the U.S. entry
into World War II, necessitating a total redirection in the company's
efforts. Then following the end of the war New Hermes had to again revert
to the peacetime pursuit of business, including the building of a sales
organization from the ground up.

As rapidly as New Hermes would progress in one direction, the whole
marketing scene would change, sending them off in a new and even better
direction. But what makes this story so incredible is the fact that
this company—still in its infancy in those days—was flexible
enough to change with the times, perceptive enough to recognize new
opportunities and strong enough to pursue them. And this is only part
of the story...

In Part 2 we'll present a continuation of the story including the evolution
of New Hermes' extensive branch system and a general tour of their main
office branch. Of equal interest will be the significant events of the
80s—the company's entry into the computerized engraving age, a
change in the ownership of the company and a preview of changes to come.